You've always got options, the headmaster had said. The words rang through the hall to Draco the way a church bell does on a crisp wintry night: clear, defined, and heavenly. They surged through the silence and struck him with a sense of peace that had only been rivaled by one person's presence. However, the optimistic illusion vanished when he realized what rubbish it had been. The man had been saying vague things that each student could think related to them, right? What kind of choices do I have, thought Draco. To die a wanna-be hero for the light now, or die a shadow of my father, later. A bittersweet wave washed over him. I've got a choice, all right, he thought. To die sooner or later, light or dark, and ultimately, right or wrong. Either way he was damned to death. He had been damned from the start.

But then, he remembered once more, the headmaster's words only two years ago. Remember Cedric, he had said. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort.

Well, Draco had always liked Diggory. He didn't really know him, but he knew of him. He did know that Cedric had embodied all that was the Hufflepuff house, and given Gryffindor a run for their money. In spite of the grave atmosphere, he let out a grin. Diggory'd snared the girl Potter wanted and beat him at Quidditch to boot. The real Hogwarts champion, he thought ruefully. He was the champion who had died because of his father and other terrorists in masks. I bet they've got a mask all picked out for me, he cringed, a mask of the finest pearl. Naturally, he thought, a mask of imported silvers and golds. A tie of the smoothest silk, because being a murdering desperado was no excuse to abandon class.

What is good and what is easy, Dumbledore had said. What is good and what is easy? If there was an easy side, Draco thought, wouldn't I have picked it ages ago? If I secretly spied for the Light, I would never truly be safe. Snape was, after all, double crossing them, and if he told the Dark Lord my own father would leap at the chance to dispose of me. Snape's invective from the prior night had struck a chord. They would never really accept me, he thought. She would accept me, his heart cried out, but would that be enough?

If he stuck with the dark he would surprise no one. Some would fall at his feet for his name and his wealth and others would hate him for the ethics that came with his title. Some would fear him and others were likely to spit on his shoes. I would, however, be out of danger, he thought. Backstab the dark and your own father Adava's you, but ruin the light and you escape, or get sent to Azkaban, where eventually you will also escape.

But escape to what? Escape to a morbid manor? Escape to a home with a demure little trophy wife of good breeding, or an empty home so expansive it's a wonder you have the energy to navigate around every morning? I life filled with countless rapes and murders. What was more important, he had to ask himself: his love or his life?

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Night had fallen, and we were all huddled close. Ginny helped me charm the furniture to the outskirts of the common room. Pilled on the floor were billowing blankets of all colors and fabrics. All the Gryffindors were there together, sleeping in the common room that night; side by side. We thought it could possibly the last night we were all together. It was hard not to cry at the thought. I no longer cared if I had bickered with the recently withdrawn Lavender in the corner, or had to let Ron copy my essay that morning. It was right, what they'd told us when we first came to Hogwarts. You will be sorted, McGonagall assured us, and in your time at Hogwarts, your house will become like your family.

I had an overwhelming amount of adoration for this family. It broke my heart to see them all so wrapped up in their apprehension. I loved them and I was proud of them and I was worried for them and I wanted nothing more than for all of us to lay there together, in silence, vowing to protect each other forever. Never did I want to see this house broken.

It was too close to the war to drain ourselves by practicing our spells over and over. It was not the time for cramming. Nor was it the time for tears; the time for crying was later. Now all we had were our skills and intuition. And each other. We would always have each other.

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The sun rose slowly that morning. The morning no one wanted to come.

Breakfast was served in the Great Hall but the Gryffindors stayed in their common room. Fred and George got Dobby to bring up food for the house, so they all ate together. Classes were canceled for the day, Dumbledore had announced. The most cheerful man on earth had turned somber, but the likes of this war.

We spent the morning eating and chatting and trying to drive the dreadful thoughts from our minds, but it was to no avail. There was a prefects meeting, McGonagall had come in to say.

The silence became somehow louder, when Hermione and Ron left the room.

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"What the hell?" asked a bewildered Draco Malfoy, "What do you mean a social?"

"I don't know," she said unsurely, "Dumbledore, he, he just said that all students were encouraged to attend and it's at noon. There will be only peer supervision, he said. The teachers know when to get lost."

He stared at her blankly. Blaise let out a chuckle.

"I, I thought it was a rather lovely idea!" She said boldly, catching him off guard.

And for the first time in a long time, he grinned at his friend.

"You know what, Pansy?" he said lightly, "I think that sounds splendid as well."

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Hermione walked into the Great Hall at eleven fifty-seven, expecting the regular tables but was met with something completely different. The ceiling was charmed to show a clear nights sky and the only sources of light were the stars and the artificial moonlight. It was rather brilliant, really. It gave the whole room a timeless tone.

The moment she walked through the door frame her wand was swept into the air. She strained her eyes to check, and it had not been star light at all. Her wand hovered above her with others. They had all been charmed to produce dim light. There was a sign on the door she had neglected to read, informing all entrants that their wands would be held for them while they were there and returned to them when they left.

It was a good plan, really, she thought, because we don't need any more brawls between the houses.

She was sure almost everyone had shown up. No one had dressed up. No one had even noticed what anyone else was wearing. At precisely noon, the music began to blare. It reverberated against every wall and shocked the entire student body for a moment.

A faceless student began to dance, in the middle of the hall and almost at once the other students joined in. There were no qualms about getting familiar. If someone came up to you, you danced with them. If you were alone, you danced stag. Most did not dance to the rhyme of the song around them, but to the music within them. Harry held Ginny close and she swayed with her head on his shoulder, but to the same song Blaise spun Lavender vehemently around the room. But as it was not the time for tears, neither was it the time for questions. It was a time to forget. It was one last time for one last dance.

She stood awkwardly at first, before finding my cadence. She'd studied ballet as a young girl, but never had she danced this way before. I must have looked outrageous with my arms in the air and my body moving to its own accord, she thought, but no one cared. In the mass of heated, frantic bodies, we all looked a little ridiculous.

One moment she was dancing alone, and the next she was not. There was a pair of hands on her hips. She would have known those hands any where.

"You never told me you danced, Granger!" he whispered into her ear, tauntingly.

A Winter Waltz began to play in the background. She knew the piece; she had danced to it before.

She turned to glare him my steepest challenge.

"You haven't seen dancing yet, Draco." she said, heatedly.

She put one arm on his shoulder and laced one hand with his own. He, having apparently formally danced many times before, rested his free hand on her waist.

Normally, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy preparing for a waltz would have been a shocker; even a few people might choke. But not today, they didn't. They were just another couple trying to lose themselves in the music before they lost each other in the war.

And so they promenaded to the song, in three beat triangles like it was a perfectly normal thing to be doing. She pulled her hand off his shoulder and let him spin her around a few times. At one point she let go all together, leaving him there with a hand extended, waiting for her. Dancing expressively with her arms, she ethereally sashayed around him like a fairy.

They came together once more, but instead of continuing their waltz, he kissed her. She knew she would never have such a kiss again. It was a kiss of adoration, a kiss that tried to keep her with him. It was a kiss that tried to make her stay and hide during the war, with Draco Malfoy of all people to protect her.

It was a kiss in which she knew she would never love any man so much as she loved Draco Malfoy then and there.

Love; somewhere along the line she had fallen totally and irrevocably in love with him. Under normal circumstances, she probably would've fainted at the realization, but here, in the crazy swirl of dancing students, it was no shocker.

She had wanted that kiss, she had needed that kiss, but she was the one to stop it. She had to find it in her to restrain herself. She had to fight this battle whether she wanted to or not. And suddenly, violent crashes could be heard. The ceiling was not black velvet, but a violent red: blood red.

The lights were back and wands were whirling at the students to which they belonged. The death eaters were traveling through the forest and the fight had come.

Surrounded by kids blurring around at top speed, they were frozen in that terrible moment of their goodbye when nothing was left to do but to leave each other.

"I think I love you," he blurted out to her, "no matter what goes on today. And I will always love you."

There was finality in his voice that made her feel like he was sure one of them would die.

"I love you too, Draco" she said, touching his cheek, "always and forever."

It took all of her strength to walk away from him then.

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We were outside by the forest, in horrible dread of what would come next.

The death eaters were there, in a row, and before there was time to think spells were being cast left and right. Pansy and others had already walked to the other side, shouting curses at all who opposed them.

I was stuck in indecision. What the hell was I doing? I saw Hermione, rushing to hug Harry and Ron and whisper things to them, last minute things, things I'm sure she'd have hated to die without telling them. And then, Harry stepping forward first, they were off.

"Draco, come here!" said Blaise. I can't give an estimate to how long it had been since the battle had begun, time was lost upon us. All that was in the air was the stench of blood and emotion, coming from wands and hearts; of the dead and the dying, inside and out.

And then it all stood still, for me. Hermione was bent over, trying to hurriedly heal Neville Longbottom, who had tried to go after Aunt Bella. She had Crucio'd him and left him there, because she had bigger fish to fry.

My father was advancing on her from behind. Once a Slytherin, always a Slytherin, I suppose. Mad-Eye Moody's words rang in my mind. Never again would I try to ambush someone from the back.

He raised his wand, and before he could utter a syllable a flash of green had struck him from my wand. At the hands of his son, Luscious Malfoy died.

From the shadows came a livid Professor Snape.

"Draco, I thought I told you what to do!" he sneered, "but you did not respect that. Your precious Light side has taught me one thing, and that is that there are things far worse than death."

A silent light shot from his wand and for a moment Draco thought he was the next Harry Potter. He had not been touched.

"There is living, while others suffer around you because of you- because of your insolence." He said.

"I don't know what you're getting at, Snape."

"Look behind you, you foolish boy!"

And there, on the forest ground was the bleeding body of his greatest ally and best friend. At the hands of Severus Snape, Blaise Zambini had been slaughtered. He was sure he would bleed to death. Draco was completely crestfallen.

However, a Malfoy never falls alone.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Malfoy said, and with a brilliant flash of green light, Severus Snape joined the ranks of those who perished that night.

Lavender emerged from her hiding spot to drag Blaise behind a tree. Draco looked at her, at a loss for words.

"Just go, Malfoy, I'll take care of him!" she said sobbing, trying to heal his wounds.

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How shocked Hermione had been when she heard the shout! Draco Malfoy had killed his father and Professor Snape. She had just about doubled over when Neville told her Draco shot the spell because Luscious was about to attack her. Other Unforgivables had been traded through the night, but to whom she did not know.

She was equally shocked when she realized something. She had whispered goodbyes to Harry and Ron and just about all of her friends that morning, just in case, but she had forgotten him. There wasn't a way in hell she was going to let him die, that day. Not before she said goodbye. There was no way she would die, either. His sacrifice would not be in vain.

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And so they fought in their world of no boundaries. In a world with no religion people fought over blood and power instead. They looked upon muggles as creatures of barbarism, but it is the same everywhere. Men among men will divide themselves and try to defeat the other. In some cases, try to kill the other.

The curses had risen to a crescendo and then subsided immediately. As most lay panting on the ground, recovering, Harry and Voldemort unaccompanied stood off in the distance, beside Hagrid's flaming hut.

Hermione stood, and almost every pair of eyes was on her. There were exceptions, of course, like the maniacal eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange that death had closed with its cruel hands. Curiously, most wands had been put away. The time to fight was over. The time to recover would come soon. But now, now was time to wait.

She said down by Draco, meriting a few intakes of breath.

"What are you doing, Hermione?" Ron said, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Something I've got to do," she said determinedly sitting down next to Draco.

"I wanted to say thank you," she said.

"You came over here, in front of all of these people, to say thank you?" he whispered weakly.

"I also came to say goodbye Draco, just in case. Just wanted to be with you one last time," she said sadly.

"Don't think of it as our last time together, Hermione. Think of it as our first," he said, putting an arm around her.

The last thing Hermione felt before Harry walked back to their spot was Draco's strong hands on her shoulder, fingers gliding through her hair. But as quickly as they had come, at the formal, those hands had gone and he had become a reflection of himself. A shadow of what had once been there. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone.

"Voldemort's gone, Hermione!" said her best friend, face wet with tears, hands stained with blood, "he's finally gone."

For the first time in sixteen years, Harry Potter was really, completely at peace. His face became grave, though, just a moment later, and he pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione. I wish I would've gotten there in time," he said to her comfortingly.

"What are you talking about Harry?" she said, pulling away to look at him.

"Draco. I rushed when I heard her, but Bella had already murdered him, Hermione. By the time I got there, all there was to do was kill her."

He left her to mourn the loss of her beloved.

How could that be, she thought, if I saw him afterwards? He must have done the impossible. He stayed, he held on to his body, to the earth, for longer than natural so that I could say goodbye to him.

She could have sworn she heard a buzz in the breeze, "I'll always love you," it said to her.

"Always and forever," she repeated back.

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Bummed this fic is over? I urge you to read Divine Humiliation, for some guaranteed DHr goodness. I wasn't asked to advertise it or anything, but it's amazing.

Reading hours of fanfiction but need credit for reading real books for school but don't know what book to read? Read Both Sides of Time by Carolyn B. Cooney. It's the first of a quartet that are amazing. If you like it please let me know somehow because I've suggested it to so many people and nobody ever reads it! Also try This Lullaby, The China Garden, Earthshine, or A Gathering Light, because wow. Those books are my favorites of all time.

If anyone has any especially excellent books they've read recently, feel free to include this in your review.

Thank you for reading this entire story guys. I'm sad to end my first real fic, but you can be looking forward to my retribution. I'm planning another DHr that I'll call They Are Us.